LENIN COLLECTION

4) Was it not from "patriotism," was it not from a desire to "wage war" that this appeared to Odintsov?

It seems to me that Odintsov's information fully corresponds to the logic of things:
X refusal to establish a demarcation line on the Don, the rosy-cheeked delegation in Kiev, and so forth.
Unable to move their own forces, the Germans want to engulf us in a Cossack uprising on the Don, the Kuban, the Lower Volga, the Urals, and Siberia.
I consider it necessary to release this report to the press, and then communicate it via radio to Ioffe as the voice of the press.
X Really ?? As for Ioffe³ and so forth.
One must consult with Chicherin.
Did you really not know that the Germans refused to bind their own hands with respect to the Don Republic?! This is worse than to forget about...* the Soviet Constitution.
I am sending this correspondence of ours to Chicherin.

¹ The correspondence was conducted apparently at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, when on May 29, 1918, an appeal to the Cossacks of the Don and Kuban was discussed in connection with negotiations between P. N. Krasnov and P. P. Skoropadsky and representatives of the German Empire. The emphasis marks in L. D. Trotsky's responses belong to V. I. Lenin.

² S. I. Odintsov—major general of the old army. From April 1917—commander of the 3rd Caucasian Cossack Division. In 1918—head of the chancellery of the People's Commissariat of Military Affairs.

³ A. A. Ioffe—from April to November 1918—plenipotentiary representative of the RSFSR in Berlin.

# MEMORANDUM FROM A. A. IOFFE

May 31, 1918

Comrade Ioffe!

The bearer is Comrade Valentina Bogrova, who in 1905 was secretary of the Petrograd Soviet. Please help her to remain in Berlin for a serious operation at the hands of a celebrated specialist there. I sent you (and Zagovsky)² another brief note³ today. I hope you received it. Greetings! Yours, Lenin

¹ See the present collection, pp. 30, 69, 75, 76.

² V. M. Zagovsky (Lubotsky)—after the October Revolution worked in the Soviet embassy in Berlin. In June 1918 came to Moscow and was soon elected secretary of the Moscow Committee of the Party.

³ This document by V. I. Lenin is not in the Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism at the CC of the CPSU.

# MEMORANDUM TO THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

[1918, not earlier than late May]

In my opinion, you should immediately, for tomorrow's newspaper, issue an alarmist report of the highest urgency: a bloc of the British + the French + the Czechoslovaks + the Whites with the Japanese. The threat of the Japanese, and so forth.¹

¹ In connection with the landing of Japanese forces in Vladivostok and the mutiny of the Czechoslovak corps, articles on this subject appeared in *Pravda* starting from May 24, 1918 and through the end of the month (see *Pravda* nos. 101-100 from May 24-30, 1918).

# EXCHANGE OF NOTES WITH G. V. CHICHERIN

[May-June 1918]

Lockart received two more telegrams about two ships in Arkhangelsk². Unwillingness to take the goods sent to us and needed by us and to pay for them with goods we have in surplus will bear a clearly hostile character toward England. In my opinion, one must agree. Tomorrow a commission (in the morning) with Nevsky, Rykov, Trotsky³. You must **go there** and **achieve concrete results personally**. Only if unsatisfied—formally report to me or the SNK.

¹ The correspondence took place at one of the meetings of the Council of People's Commissars. The discussion concerns apparently a regular meeting of the Extraordinary Commission on Evacuation.

² Robert Hamilton Lockart—from January 1918 head of a special British mission to the Soviet government. Which telegrams of Lockart and which ships are meant could not be established.

³ V. I. Nevsky at this time—member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Ways and Communications; A. I. Rykov—chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy; L. D. Trotsky—People's Commissar for Naval Affairs.

# LETTER TO HENRI GILBEAUX

[June 2, 1918]

Dear Comrade,

I hope you will not judge me too harshly. I am very busy. This is because I have very little time, and I shall confine myself to greetings to you and ask you to write me a few lines sometimes. A thousand greetings!

Yours, Lenin

Published according to the text of the journal: *Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte*, 1968, No. 1, translated from the French. Published in Russian for the first time.

¹ This letter to Henri Gilbeaux from V. I. Lenin was directed together with a memorandum to Y. A. Berzin, who headed the Soviet mission in Switzerland in 1918, and to G. L. Shklovsky on June 2, 1918 (see V. I. Lenin, Complete Collected Works, vol. 50, p. 89).

# MEMORANDUM TO L. A. FOTIEVA

[June 13, 1918]

If you and Gorbunov chatter at the meeting, I will put you both in the corner.

¹ The note was written at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars on June 3, 1918. L. A. Fotieva and N. P. Gorbunov worked at this time as secretaries of the SNK.

# EXCHANGE OF NOTES WITH S. M. TER-GABRIELYAN

[1918, June, not earlier than the 6th]

Most Esteemed Vladimir Ilyich!

I beg you, order the Central Armored Unit to load the Baku detachment without fail tomorrow, otherwise I shall be powerless to do anything for immediate departure.

Ter-Gabrielyan